A Summary of major Construction Projects

The vast majority of the work to improve railway lines, which impacts on the frequency and journey times info as per the journey guides, is completed over one Sat/Sun period.
So if you can't find a usual route or a train departure online, it can be worth having a look at the links to the national construction work, which you will find below.
You may then have to translate what you'll find, but it can be worth the effort to discover what's occurring and to glean whether you'll need to take a bus for part of the journey, or whether trains are being diverted.
Alterations to the usual service are often not particularly obvious when looking up the journey on a ticket booking service.

The information included below is a guide to the the more extensive construction projects which are impacting on train services for a week or more.
Therefore these are the projects which are good to be aware of if you're planning a rail pass itinerary and want to avoid any hassle, or are wondering why a typical connection isn't available on multiple dates.

These are the upcoming rail construction projects which;

• last more than a weekend, so also impact on Monday to Friday travel
• affect long-distance express trains
• result in trains being diverted, with longer journey times (which impacts on connections)
• Or, are being substituted by buses for part of the journey.

1: Due to construction work, all long-distance trains between Vienna Hbf and Wr.Neustadt will be rerouted from June 29, 2024 to September 2, 2024 .
This will extend the journey times and alter arrival and departure times of the trains on the Wien ↔ Graz and Wien ↔ Villach routes.

2: From September 16 - 20th and from October 25 (11:00 p.m.) to November 4 (4:00 a.m.) due to construction work, some of the Railjet (RJ / RJX) trains which take the Salzburg Hbf ↔ Innsbruck Hbf route will be diverted on to a much longer route via Bischofshofen.

3: Also from October 25 (11:00 p.m.) to November 4 (4:00 a.m.) due to construction work, some of the Railjet (RJ / RJX) trains on the München ↔ Budapest / Wien route will be diverted between Salzburg and Rosenheim and will therefore not be able to stop at Salzburg Hbf.

4:* Also from September 16 - 20th due to construction work, some of the Railjet (RJ / RJX) trains on the Innsbruck ↔ München via Worgl route will be diverted between Kufstein and Rosenheim and other trains will be cancelled.

5: Due to construction work no trains will be able to run between Bischofshofen station and Selzthal station from September 9th - 29th.
This route is taken by the trains which travel between Innsbruck or Salzburg and Graz.
A rail replacement bus service, on which bicycles cannot be transported, will be set up for the daytime trains.
The night trains to/from Graz will be diverted on to a longer route via Villach.

1: From Saturday evening July 13th at 19:00 to the close of Sunday July 21st, DSB will operate buses instead of trains between Slagelse and Korsør.
This is significant as these two stations are on the primary Danish rail route between København / Copenhagen and Odense - they are at the western end of the island of Zealand on which København is located, so are at the eastern end of the Great Belt Bridge and rail tunnel.
The trains on these routes will therefore be affected between those dates:
København - Odense - Aarhus - Aalborg
København - Odense - Kolding - (Padborg - Hamburg)
Journey times extended by around 45mins.

2: Until Sunday 6 October, no trains run will be available between Aalborg and Aalborg Airport. Instead, you must use the NT's local city buses.

3: From Friday evening 26 July approx. at 21:00 up to and including Thursday 15 August buses will replace all trains between Aarhus H and Aalborg.

4: And then from Friday 16 August to Friday 20 Septemberbuses will replace all trains between Hobro and Aalborg.
Hobro is located towards the northern end of the Aarhus H ↔ Aalborg route, so during this time the trains on the Kobenhavn ↔ Aalborg route, will be turning around in Hobro.

From November 9th to November 12th inclusive the high speed line between Paris and Avignon / Nimes will be closed due to signaling modernization work.

After 5 years of work without impact on passenger traffic, this very large-scale operation requires the complete closure of this line for 4 days. The circulation of High Speed ​​Trains will be modified, with these consequences:
• The reduction in the number of High Speed ​​Trains in circulation
• The trains which are running will take the classic line with a significant increase in travel time
• Certain stations on the Line High Speed ​​will not be served.

An overview of major construction projects can be found on the German language version of the DB website - so use Google Translate if need be.

1: Frankfurt (Main) Hbf / Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim

The Riedbahn railway which connects one of the main hubs of the German rail system, Mannheim, with destinations to the north, is to be closed for improvement work in 2024 from July 15th to December 14th.
It is typically used by these regularly timetabled ICE trains, which on the usual timetable operate every two hours:

• Hamburg - Hannover - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel - Zurich - Chur
• Berlin - Kassel Frankfurt (Main) ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel - Bern - Interlaken
• Berlin - Leipzig - Erfurt - Frankfurt (Main) - ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart - Augsburg - Munich/Munchen
• Berlin - Erfurt - Frankfurt (Main) - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart
• Dortmund - Dusseldorf - Cologne/Koln-Messe Deutz - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart - Augsburg - Munich/Munchen
• Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Dusseldorf - Cologne/Koln hbf - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Stuttgart - Augsburg - Munich/Munchen
• Hamburg - Bremen - Dortmund - Dusseldorf - Cologne/Koln hbf - Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel

More information is available here.

Also from July 15th the daily Amsterdam - Utrecht - Armhem ↔ Koln Frankfurt Flughafen ↔ Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Basel daytime service by ICE train will be permanently cancelled.

2: ICE trains at Frankfurt Airport

Frankfurt Flughagen Fernbahnhof, which is the station at Frankfurt Airport used by the ICE trains, will in effect be closed from July 16th to July 29th inclusive.

More information is available here.

3 On the Karlsruhe to Basel route:

From August 9th to August 30th, the route between Rastatt and Baden-Baden will be closed to rail traffic.
The ICE trains which usually travel between these locations are:

• Hamburg - Hannover - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) - Karlsruhe - Basel - Zurich - Chur
• Berlin - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) - Karlsruhe - Basel - Bern - Interlaken
• Hamburg - Bremen - Koln - Frankfurt Airport - Karlsruhe - Basel
  An ICE train will run every hour from Basel SBB to Baden-Baden. Rail replacement buses will run between Baden-Baden and Rastatt.

4: Between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart

From April 1st to July 18th due to construction work there will be fewer trains between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, no long-distance trains will be calling in Pforzheim Hbf and Mühlacker

1: Huddersfield ↔ Leeds

Engineering work is taking place between Leeds and Huddersfield, closing various lines from Monday night, 24 Jun 2024 until Saturday morning, 28 Jun 2024.

An amended service will run on the following routes:

• Between Newcastle and Liverpool Lime Street (diverted via Normanton)
• Between Saltburn and Manchester Victoria (diverted via Normanton)
• Between Leeds and Hull
  The services diverted via Normanton won't be calling at Huddersfield (or Dewsbury and Stalybridge) and will also have extended journey times

Rail replacement buses will run as follows:

• Leeds-Dewsbury-Huddersfield (two per hour)
• Leeds to Huddersfield Stopper (hourly)
• Huddersfield to Manchester Airport (hourly)
  Trains will be available between Huddersfield and Manchester Victoria - connect for Liverpool.

2: London ↔ South Wales

From Wednesday July 3rd to Thursday July 18th the trains between London Paddington and Cardiff Central / Swansea / Carmarthen will be diverted, and will call additionally at Gloucester.
These trains will not call at Bristol Parkway.
Journey times between London and Wales will be extended, and trains will be retimed to run earlier or later than usual.

3: Gloucester ↔ South Wales

From July 29th to August 9th buses will replace trains between Severn Tunnel Junction and Gloucester
The route is taken by trains on these routes:

• Nottingham - Birmingham - Gloucester ↔ Chepstow - Newport - Cardiff
• Gloucester ↔ Chepstow - Newport - Cardiff - Bridgend - Maesteg

4: North east of Birmingham

From August 17th - 23rd engineering work will be taking place between Birmingham New Street and Water Orton, closing some lines.

The following amendments will take place:

• Birmingham New Street ↔ Stansted Airport services will be cancelled between Birmingham and Coleshill Parkway stations
• Nottingham ↔ Cardiff will operate between Nottingham and Coleshill Parkway, and also between Birmingham New Street and Cardiff Central.Trains to/from North East and Scotland will divert via an alternative route not calling at Tamworth. Journey times will be extended by one hour.
• Trains on the Birmingham ↔ Sheffield - Leeds - York - Newcastle - Scotland route will be diverted via an alternative route not calling at Tamworth, with journey times extended by one hour.

1: Milano to Domodossola
The route between Domodossola and Milano is being reconstructed over the next couple of years, so in 2024 the railway between Arona and Stresa is closed completely from June 9th to September 8th.

2: Bologna to Prato

This is the route which in effect parallels the newer line used by the high speed trains which rush between Bologna and Firenze / Florence.
The older route, which includes the Apennine Base Tunnel is still typically used by:

• The up to three **Intercity trains services per day which usually take a Milano - Parma - Bologna ↔ Prato - Firenze - Arezzo - Roma route - thereby providing a slower, but cheaper alternative to taking a high-speed 'Frecce' service between Milano and Roma.
• A daily Intercity train on a Milano - Parma - Bologna ↔ Prato - Firenze - Arezzo - Perugia route
• Regionale trains which operate - Bologna ↔ Prato - Which in summer, are typically the only option for rail pass users to avoid paying any reservation fees when travelling between Bologna and Firenze / Florence.

However, for most of the remainder of 2024, this route is being impacted by the need to expand its many tunnels to enable the passage of larger freight wagons.
Seemingly until September 8th, the northern part of the route will be closed completely; And then from Monday 9 September to Friday 15 November, on weekdays, a section of the route will be closed from 9.30am to 1.30pm.

As a consequence the Bologna ↔ Prato service of Regionale trains has seemingly been suspended until at least August 9th and possibly beyond.
A limited rail service will only be available on the section of the route between Prato and the station named San Benedetto V.S. Castiglione.

It also looks as though the InterCity trains won't be serving Prato until at least the timetable change on December 8th.
One of the daily InterCity trains which typically take a Milano ↔ Roma route via Prato is seemingly only operating Milano ↔ Bologna and the Milano ↔ Perugia train is operating Firenze ↔ Perugia.
The other Milano ↔ Roma Intercity service has been diverted to a Milano - Genova - Pisa ↔ Firenze - Arezzo - Roma route.

The Nightjet overnight services between both Munich / Vienna and Rome also use this route so they will not be available until September 10th/11th.

3: Milano to Tirano via Colico

The timetable between June 9th and Sept 8th is awaiting confirmation.
But it very much looks as though, during this time, a section of the railway will be closed west of Tirano, with a bus substitution in place for part of the journey.
This will extend journey times by 20 to 30 minutes.
Travel between Milano and Colico should still be possible by train.

4: Milano to Mantova / Mantua

Due to infrastructure upgrading works, the train service has been suspended between the Bozzolo and Mantua stations until December 31st 2026.
Trenord's RE trains on the Milan Central – Mantua connection are partially canceled and replaced with buses between the Bozzolo and Mantua stations.
As a consequence travelling solely by train between Milano and Mantova / Mantua is only possible by connecting in Verona.

5: At Choggia

Until 31 August 2024, due to ordinary and extraordinary maintenance works, the trains on the Rovigo-Adria-Chioggia line are cancelled. A replacement bus service has been established.

From July 7th (22:00) until July 12th (06:00) due to renovation work there will be fewer fast trains than usual between Basel and Zurich.
There will typically only be one such train per hour - and neither the ICE or Lyria trains will apparently be serving Zurich with these international trains being turned around in Basel.

These are the upcoming major works on the railway lines, that will be impacting on international railway routes over sustained periods of time.

Due to extensive construction work in Germany and France, the Nightjet overnight services on these three routes will not be available between August 12th and October 25:
Paris ↔ Berlin
Paris ↔ Linz - Vienna / Wien
Bruxelles - Liege ↔ Berlin

From October 28th, all routes will be offered again as scheduled.

Due to construction work and a route closure in Italy, the Nightjet overnight services between both Munich / Vienna and Romewill not be available until September 10th/11th.

From Tuesday July 2nd (06:00) to Sunday July 7th (23:59) the Eurostar trains on the Amsterdam ↔ Paris route will be turned around in Rotterdam and won't be departing from, or arriving at Amsterdam.
They will also not be calling at Antwerp.

From July 6th to July 12th around 50% of the trains on the Paris ↔ Luxembourg will be originating or terminating at Metz station - and won't be serving at Thionville and Luxembourg.
From July 13 to September 15 inclusive no direct TGV INOUI trains will be able to served Luxembourg station.

The railway between Arona and Stresa is closed completely from June 9th to September 8th, so during these dates the following EC express train services will be turning around in Domodossola:
Geneve - Lausanne - Sion - Visp - Brig - Domodossola ↔ Stresa - Milano
Basel - Olten - Bern - Thun - Spiez - Visp - Brig - Domodossola ↔ Stresa -Milano

Due to construction work some long-distance trains will be diverted via St.Margrethen between Buchs SG and Sargans from August 10th, 2024 to September 9th, 2024, so journey times will be extended,
This is the route taken by the daytime Railjet trains on the Zurich ↔ Innsbruck - Salzburg - Wien - Budapest / Bratislava route.
Though despite the fact that trains are seemingly being diverted and not cancelled, a replacement rail service with buses is to be set up - though it seems that this will be in place because the Railjet trains are not calling at Sargans between these dates.
The night trains are being rerouted.

From August 9th to August 30th 2024, the railway between Rastatt and Baden-Baden will be closed to rail traffic.
The ICE trains which usually travel between these locations are on these routes:

• Hamburg - Hannover - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) - Karlsruhe - Basel - Zurich - Chur
• Berlin - Kassel - Frankfurt (Main) - Karlsruhe - Basel - Bern - Interlaken
• Hamburg - Bremen - Koln - Frankfurt Airport - Karlsruhe - Basel

An ICE train will run every hour from Basel SBB to Baden-Baden. Rail replacement buses will run between Baden-Baden and Rastatt.

From Saturday evening July 13th at 19:00 to the close of Sunday July 21st, the railway in Denmark will be closed between the stations at Slagelse and Korsør.
This is significant as these two stations are on the primary Danish rail route between København / Copenhagen and Odense, and this route is taken by the Copenhagen ↔ Hamburg direct trains.
Danish railways, DSB, will be operating buses between Copenhagen / København and Slagelse.

Though in Germany a decision has evidently been taken to kill two birds with one stone, as from July 13th to July 21st, the the railway between Padborg and Hamburg will also be closed due to engineering work.
Hence the usual EC trains have been withdrawn completely during these dates, but they are typically the only direct trains on the København / Copenhagen - Odense - Kolding - Padborg - Hamburg route.

So from July 14th to July 21st the København / Copenhagen ↔ Hamburg journey will involve

1. A train København ↔ Slagelse.
2. A bus Slagelse ↔ Korsør
3. A train Korsør ↔ Kolding
4. A train Kolding ↔ Padborg
5. A bus Padborg ↔ Hamburg Hbf
   The total journey time will be around 6hr 15mins.

This is the only rail route between Denmark and Germany and as a consequence the night trains on the Hamburg ↔ Stockholm and Berlin ↔ Stockholm routes will be suspended from July 13th to July 21st.

From July 16 to August 9th:
(1) Some TGVs on the Paris ↔ Frankfurt route will be turning around in Mannheim or Heidelberg.
(2) The Marseille ↔ Frankfurt services will also be turned around in Mannheim.

From August 10 th to August 30th:
(1) In addition to the above works affecting the Paris ↔ Frankfurt services, during these dates the trains on the Paris - Strasbourg ↔ Karlsruhe - Stuttgart - Munich route, will be diverted via Saarbrücken and won't be calling at Strasbourg and Karlsruhe.
Travel times will also be longer.
(2) The Marseille ↔ Frankfurt services will also be diverted to operate on a Marseille ↔ Stuttgart route via Saarbrücken, which will extend the journey time by more than an hour.

From August 31 to December 9th:
(1) Some TGVs on the Paris ↔ Frankfurt route will be turning around in Mannheim or Heidelberg.
(2) The Marseille ↔ Frankfurt services will also be turned around in Mannheim.

Due to construction work, no long-distance trains will be able to run between Graz Hbf and Szentgotthárd
from July 27th (8:00 a.m.) to September 8th (5:00 p.m.) .
Buses will replace the trains between these two stations.
The affected services includes the trains on the Budapest ↔ Ljubljana route.

1. Due to the partial closure of the Hauenstein Base Tunnel, TGV Lyria services between Basel SBB and Zurich will be cancelled from 7 July to 12 August 2024, all services will be turned around in Basel.
   For journeys between Zurich main station and Paris, it is necessary to temporarily change trains in Basel SBB.

2. Due to construction work north of Dijon, there will be fewer TGV services from Zurich and Lausanne to Paris and vice versa on Monday to Friday from 13 August to 14 December 2024.
   There may be diversions via Strasbourg on the Zurich–Paris route.

Due to construction work between Renens and Denges, TGV services between Lausanne and Geneva will be cancelled from 29 June to 18 August 2024.
Thanks to the regular direct connections between Lausanne and Geneva, you can travel from Lausanne to Paris with the same journey time by changing at Geneva.
In addition, the direct TGV services from Lausanne to Paris via Vallorbe are running as per normal.

Due to reconstruction work at Amsterdam Centraal station, which will temporarily close down its Eurostar check-in area, there will be no direct services from Amsterdam to London from June 15th until at least mid-December.